With development of computer technologies and communications technologies, a smart interface card (SIC) becomes increasingly complex. In addition to a powerful SOC chip, a hardware architecture of an existing smart interface card includes a DDR memory, an SSD hard disk, a CPLD, a BMC used for management, various types of voltage/temperature monitoring chips, and various peripherals such as a network port and an SAS, and configuration of the existing smart interface card is close to that of a small server.
The smart interface card works after being inserted into a corresponding interface slot on a server, and the server needs to establish a channel to the smart interface card to transmit a control instruction, so as to manage the smart interface card. In a conventional technology, there are two management manners: in-band management and out-of-band management. In an in-band management manner, a specific register configured by a manufacturer is disposed on the smart interface card, and a host controls and manages the smart interface card by reading/writing the register by using corresponding management software provided by the manufacturer. In an out-of-band management manner, an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C, a two-line serial bus developed by Philips) bus interface is usually further disposed on the smart interface card. After the smart interface card is inserted into the corresponding slot of the host, an additional line is further needed to constitute an I2C bus link between the smart interface card and the host, and then the control instruction is transmitted by using the additional I2C bus.
It can be learned that, in the in-band management manner of the smart interface card, the specific register needs to be disposed on the smart interface card, and the host can perform management only after the corresponding management software is installed. After multiple smart interface cards from different manufacturers are inserted, different management software from the multiple manufacturers needs to be installed to separately perform management. However, in the out-of-band management manner of the smart interface card, the host needs to provide an additional I2C bus interface for a control purpose. If the host is not equipped with the I2C bus interface or does not have an idle I2C bus interface, the host cannot manage the inserted smart interface card. Therefore, in the conventional technology, a problem of poor scalability exists in both the in-band management manner and the out-of-band management manner.